Huron Fringe Birding Festival 2022

June 5 - Homeward Bound

Colin and Hilda were staying for another half day, but we had plans to visit the Durham Cemetery on the way home, followed by meetups with relatives in Toronto. So, although we left Port Elgin at 7 am, it was going on 3 pm before we left Toronto.

We stopped at the Big Apple to get some of the bread that Jane raves about, then decided to exit Hwy 401 at The Flying J to head for the Napanee Plain Alvar Reserve to look for Loggerhead Shrikes.

We passed through Newburgh and headed north on Main Street / Road 27. When we reached the Alvar, we saw another slow-moving car ahead of us – another birder!



We proceeded slowly up Main looking at all the shrubs and saw the other vehicle turn onto Nugent Road. We turned too, and we saw the other birder out of his car. Barbara said, do you know that guy? So, Bill looked with his binoculars and could not believe it. It was Ken from our Ottawa birding group! Of course, Ken did not expect us, so was really surprised when we pulled up and got out.



Ken said he had already briefly seen a shrike. So, we all started looking at the distant trees and shrubs. Then Bill spotted one too, low down. Click, click, click. There may have ben a second one.



It soon went down out of sight, but would put in an appearance every now and then. Finally, it flew across and Barbara got her shots.



We kept hearing snipes and meadowlarks, and one of the latter flew in fairly close.



By this time, it was after 7 pm, so we said goodbye to Ken and set our map for Sharbot Lake. We returned home on Hwy 7 without incident, arriving after 9 pm. That was a long day!

So ended another Huron Fringe birding adventure. We were very pleased with our trip and the time with our birding buddies, Colin & Hilda.